CO-Horts

CO-Horts

Monday, February 24, 2014

Soil Testing: It's a good thing

Posted by: Alison O'Connor, horticulture agent, Larimer County

Spring is coming and gardeners are itchy to get outside and
start planting. You've received seed catalogs for months now, and you’re
totally over the wind and cold. I guess we should be glad that we don’t live in
Minnesota (sorry, mom and dad). There is one thing you can do to get your hands
dirty (literally) and prepare for the 2014 gardening season—do a soil test.

If you've never done it before, it’s a good baseline to start with. If you've gardened for years and keep adding organic matter, fertilizer, cover crops, etc., it
will be a great indicator if you need to continue those practices. Soil
testing, especially in vegetable gardens, should be as routine as planting peas
in the spring. Plus, it’s really easy to do—the soil lab does all the tough
work for you. Follow the steps below to
ace the soil test:

1. Gather your tools. In this
case, I’m using a soil probe (but you can use a shovel or trowel), a
plastic bucket and a container for submitting my soil sample. Some
Extension offices may have probes that you can borrow or rent for a small
fee. It’s really important that your bucket is clean and made from plastic—metal
(especially rusted metal) can interfere with your results. The sample jar
I’m using is one the CSU Soil Testing Laboratory provides (available at
your local Extension office), but a quart-sized zip-top bag will work, as
will paper bags.

2. Scout your area. In this
example, I’m taking soil samples from a lawn, but this could be your
garden, landscape bed or any other area you wish to test. If you’re having
“problem areas” in a lawn or garden, then consider testing that section separately. Yes, you’ll have to pay for two soil tests, but it
might be worth it—especially if you've had continual problems growing in
that spot.

The lawn can be dormant; soil may be sampled anytime the ground isn't frozen.

3. You want to get a
representative sample from the entire
area. You can do this by pulling at least 12-15 samples, which you
will mix together. For the lawn, you’re looking for cores about 4” deep
(or collect aeration cores and use those—just be sure to remove the thatch
and grass). In the vegetable
garden, use a shovel or trowel to sample about 6” deep. Gathering multiple
samples, mixing them together and submitting a subsample of the soil
collected will be key to a successful soil test.

Gently push down on the probe to 4-6" deep.

Sample of soil pulled from the turf.

Remove the thatch and grass from the soil core.

4. Gather all your samples
together in the clean plastic bucket, break up the big clods and then mix
well. Remove any large roots or rocks. Fill your sample container with a
portion of the mixture and put the rest of the soil back in the garden (or
on the lawn).

Chunky cores.

Cores broken up.

Pour your sample into your sampling jar or baggie.

5. Do not send the lab wet
soils, so let your sample air-dry for a few days before packaging it up.
Then send it off for analysis. A routine soil test at CSU will cost $31
and includes pH, soluble salts (EC), nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium,
organic matter, soil texture, iron, sulfates and some micronutrients. Or
you can pick and choose what you want to test for. Some gardeners in
flooded areas are testing for heavy metals, which is an additional charge.
You should get your results via email in 7-10 days.

Let your soil sample air-dry for a couple days before submitting to the lab.

6. A soil test will not
tell you about pesticide residuals, toxic compounds, microbial
activity, water requirements, compaction levels or why you cannot grow
tomatoes worth a darn.

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